1 Chapter 1

Amber Alberta Canada, October 20th 2020 4:00PM Meteor Cafe

"Claude! Can you go get the dishes on tables five and seven?" "Sure thing Sarah" Claude the busboy responded to the waitress and put down the plate he was cleaning on the counter next to a dish rack and grabbed a basket and walked through the kitchen to the cafe area and made his way to the dirty tables, picking up each plate and putting it in the bus bin. Behind him Sarah was greeting a family walking in and taking them to a table. He had worked at the Cafe for nearly a month and he enjoyed it, even if he was just washing dishes and cleaning tables. It paid okay, his coworkers were nice, Sarah Baker and Phil Lockman anyway. Pete and Dave Brooks, the twin cooks not so much, pretty big dickheads most of the time. The boss Fred Daniels was pretty nice. When Claude was walking back to the kitchen with the bucket of dirty dishes. Something flew past Claude's face just missing his nose and landing with a splash into a mop bucket "What the-" Claude spoke being cut off as a frozen chicken wing landed in the bus bin and the two cooks went nuts cheering. Claude ignored them and threw the frozen chicken wing in the trash before putting the dishes in the sink, by the time Claude cleaned the last of the dishes he looked at the clock and saw it was a quarter after four. His replacement for the night shift Benny was supposed to be in at four but was late, again. Benny was a pretty useless dishwasher.

He usually let it all pile up until Claude's shift at ten in the morning. The back door of the restaurant could be heard slamming shut which meant Benny was probably just arriving. Claude turned to look at the far corner near the back door entrance and sure enough Benny stumbled around the corner. He looked drunk and had apparently shaved his head bald since the last time he saw him. Benny was a scrawny white guy covered in tattoos who would normally stink of booze. If Amber had a local drunk it was Benny. "Hey Claude buddy. Nice and tidy as always." "As always Benny. Do you think you can keep it this clean tonight?" "I'll try my damndest buddy." he said slurring the words as he threw an apron over his head and made his way towards the dishpit clapping Claude on the shoulder as he stuttered the word "buddy". "I believe in you champ." said Claude with a grin throwing up finger guns as he made his way to the front desk. Next to Phil who was manning the register. "Hey Phil, Benny finally showed up, am I good to go now?" "Sure thing Claude. Let's go see how Donny's doing. He's been an absolute sweetheart all day. Sarah and I have been letting him eat leftovers from breakfast. It was that or let Pete and Dave make a damn mess again throwing it around like morons." Phil Lockman was taking Claude to the second coatroom. It never got used for coats so Claude put a spare Kennel in there to keep Donny his rottweiler, so he wouldn't be home alone and making a mess which Claude struggled to prevent time after time. Donny was usually pretty quiet and if he did get loud, somebody would bring him some pancakes to keep him quiet. Was it a health code violation? Probably. But the extra coat room was near the back door so he never actually came through the kitchen which was a plus. Phil opened the door and Donny let out a small whine as he started to wag his tail hitting the inside of the kennel every time he moved it. "Don't forget to punch out." Phil said with a grunt as he bent over to unlock the kennel and Donny, still wagging his tail, got out and stretched. "Oh big stretch." Claude heard Phil say as he clocked out for the day and turned to grab Donny's leash, which the dog was already holding in his mouth as his tail wagged harder. Claude grabbed the leash and scratched his dog's head as he clipped the leash onto his leather collar. "Alright Phil I'll see you tomorrow." "I doubt it Claude, my vacation starts tomorrow. Gonna be gone till the end of the week." "oh, in that case have a good trip, and if you see her tell Sarah I said bye." Claude said, putting on his heavy winter coat and opening the door. "Sure thing and thanks, I'll see you at the end of the week Claude." Claude waved and shut the door and made his way out the back door and onto the sidewalk. The walk went fine for the first couple minutes until a dirt bike drove by on the road, passing them quickly. Claude could barely make out the dark clothes of the rider but the white and red bike sped loudly past them throwing snow at them as it passed. Donny did not take kindly to this. "No boy don't!" too late. Donny had yanked free of Claude's grip and tried to chase the rider who disappeared around a corner and could be heard fading into the distance until they were gone.

Claude chased after Donny trying not to slip on ice as he kept up with his dog. They lived in a town called Amber, a small place a few kilometres northwest of Manning Alberta. Donny stopped and turned long enough to see that Claude was still there, and continued outrunning him. "Slow down Donny" Claude's black knockoff hiking boots slid along the slick icy sidewalk as he stopped running to catch his balance. "Shit, shit, shit." Claude said through a grimace as his foot hit a rock stuck in the ice and he was thrown into a snowpile between the sidewalk and street. Claude got out and brushed the snow off as quick as he could while Donny stared at him.

Claude made a motion with his hand that he and Donny both knew meant 'get over here. Now.' by pointing at the rottweiler who wore the adorable face of innocence he usually had after tearing up Claude's living room, and then pointing at the ground directly in front of him. When Claude finished, and Donny realized what it meant, the big dog wasted no time patting across the icy sidewalk back in front of Claude. 'It took two years to teach him that.' he thought to himself proudly. From behind Claude heard a car coming down the street behind him. When he turned to see who it was he immediately recognized who it was from the police car. "Afternoon sheriff." Claude said with a wave brushing off the last of the snow. The police car slowed and the sheriff poked his head across the empty passenger seat to talk to Claude out the window as he pulled over to the curb. His scruffy dark hair covered by his sheriffs hat, his baggy brown eyes hidden behind a pair of silver aviators. "Afternoon, Claude." the sheriff said with a nod and taking a drag off the cigarette hanging out of his mouth and finishing it in an empty Tim Hortons cup before continuing what he had to say. "You be careful out here Claude. And get both your butts home before it gets dark." Ben pointed a smooth dark finger at Claude like a parent warning a child as he warned him. "We will, Ben. We're on our way back home now." "Just be careful if you see anybody you don't recognize or someone who just looks like trouble, If you do, you get the hell out of there and let someone at the station know." "You got it sheriff." Claude said with a smile and a joking salute.

Sheriff Ben Aster was fit and healthy, had a short beard that made him look a lot like Lawrence Fishburne. Above all else, a hardworking, honest sheriff and these grizzly murders were setting everyone on edge, especially the sheriff, and The town of Amber was small. Population just barely over a thousand small and in the past two weeks fourteen people have gone missing or died including four police officers, seven pizza delivery drivers, twelve high school students, three prostitutes and two dogs. All that in this morning's paper, The Amber Tribune which was laying on Claude's coffee table as well as crumpled up on the sheriff's passenger seat with coffee stains. Claude had nodded and said "drive safe Ben." when the sheriff stopped him again. "I mean it Claude. Curfew starts at five, that gives you and Donny time to finish your walk and get home. I don't wanna be reading about you in the paper tomorrow." the sheriff had dark circles underneath his eyes and hadn't shaved in a few days though his uniform was clean, pressed and ironed, except for the small coffee stain on the opposite side from his badge. "We will, sheriff. Gonna be getting dark soon anyway." "that's right." Sheriff Aster said with a grim nod and drove on down the road at a crisp twenty miles an hour before turning right and disappearing from sight. "He needs a hobby." Claude muttered to Donny before making their way down the sidewalk, Donny only a few feet away from Claude who was looking at all the signs in the windows. It was strange, this time of year places were bustling with both business and halloween decorations and this year it felt like a ghost town. Only the business that demanded their employees stayed open like the gas stations, the banks. 'That giant green supermarket across the street from my apartment.'

he couldn't help the thought. Every weekend he tried to sleep in, he usually woke up to a fender bender followed by a screaming match coming from the supermarket parking lot. Claude and Donny walked past the remaining closed shops, a book store named Restless Pages was the latest to join the graveyard shops as it's one employee Mary Wilhelm has either joined the missing or packed up and left town. 'Probably for the best.' Claude thought. 'This town feels wrong lately. Probably because of the murders but there's something else and I can't quite place it.' His thoughts were interrupted as Donny let out a series of Barks and ran past the crosswalk they used to get to their apartment and instead, ran across the street causing a tiny blue sedan to hit its brakes and its driver layed on the horn. "Donny no, damn it!'' Claude let the vehicle pass and then chased his dog across the other crosswalk, past the supermarket. "Donny! Stop!" the rottweiler turned with his tongue out and his tail wagging, watching Claude skate across the icy sidewalk. The dog kept on ahead and just out of Claude's reach. "This is the last time i take you out without a leash!" 'A bold lie.' Donny didn't stop again for what felt like an hour. Claude kept his pace when he saw the two opposing wood posts for the dog park up ahead. "Don't even think about it!" Claude shouted now, slowing down and very much out of breath. 'Shit, this is not the time for the dog park buddy.' Claude's thoughts were racing when they made their way down the slanted downward path covered in snow and ice. "Damn it, slow down!" Claude shouted watching Donny slow down ahead and turn like he did earlier, just enough to see that Claude was still there. Only this time he waited and watched his owner catch up to him, struggling to breathe in the heavy winter jacket which he had to unzip to avoid sweating and passing out. "Stupid jacket." Claude said, pulling down the zipper, which broke halfway down."Fuck." he said, now wheezing and out of breath.

"God damn it Donny slow down!" Claude shouted at the dog who turned around and let out a whine before waiting for Claude. "We can't be doing this right now, it's getting late! There's a lunatic on the loose! And it's freezing!" Donny let out a whine and started back when Claude started to realize how dark it was getting. Donny raised his ears and looked around . "Donny? What is it boy?" The dog lowered it's head and began to growl, rotating his head towards off the path, away from Claude towards the treeline of dark oak trees ahead, before recklessly darting in. "Donny!" Claude called again. Normally the solar powered lights kick in along the path when it starts to get dark. Unfortunately, after a week straight of clouds, they didn't have enough juice to even start. "Donny?!" Claude stumbled through the dark for a while, losing track of the path, and Donny. Shouting as he climbed over thick roots poking through the snow and into the patch of dark trees his dog had entered seconds earlier. The wind picked up and a gust of cold wind pushed Claude further into the pathless darkness.

Claude pulled out his smartphone, it displayed the time, now five O two. The battery was at five percent which abruptly dropped to four, the screen dimmed and brought up a message saying "Please plug in Charger." Claude ignored the message and aimed it ahead, in the direction Donny went."Come on Donny come out this is no. time. For. games..." Claude said as he walked into something that felt like a bear, but skinny and tall. It snarled when he bumped into it and the phone which was now flashing the zero percent symbol, was about to die. The blinking lights caught a thick sharp mouth of teeth with twitching lips pulled back like a snarling wolf only much too large and narrowed yellow eyes staring into him. "Donny." Claude whimpered backing up onto the now dark path. The creature heaved as it growled in front of him rising onto two muscular back legs, it had to be eight or nine feet tall and it was hunched over so probably a little taller. "Donny where the fuck are you!?" Claude turned and started to run. "DONNY WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?!" he screamed before something massive collided with his back which sent him crashing to the ground. 'This has to be a dream, I ran into a tree, fell down a ditch and cracked my head on a rock.' Claude rolled onto his back and saw the creature squatting several feet away still as a boulder in the darkness. Its yellow eyes had no pupils just glowing yellow orbs on a heaving shape that breathed rhythmically and quickly in the cold darkness. Claude backed up slowly on his hands. When he heard footsteps coming from behind him. He turned around expecting to see some other horror lurching over him ready to tear him apart, but it was Donny. He let out a loud bark as he stood in front of Claude growling at the creature. Donny let out a loud bark and the creature started to crawl towards them like a lunatic on his hands and feet. "Donny we need to go now!" Claude scraped himself off the icy concrete and started to run. The second his back was to the creature he could hear Donny snarling and yelping. Claude stopped and turned to see Donny and this creature. Covered in thick black hair with cold yellow eyes, circling each other, sizing each other up.

Suddenly before Claude could blink, Donny tackled the monster which was sent rolling down the icy bike trail they had only made their way back to by accident. Claude watched the frightening exchange of bites and and slashes. The creature stood high and slashed its arms at Donny, missing as Donny circled the creature's legs and sunk his powerful jaws into the creature's hindquarters. Donny yanked and tore the creature's leg nearly tearing it off altogether, before the creature turned snarling and Donny was looking into its cold yellow eyes for just a moment before the dog finally got the instinct to turn and run. "The creature limped behind him but was too slow. Up ahead Donny could see Claude. "Donny, for god's sake let's get out of here!" He yelled turning and chasing after Donny who was able to beat him to the top of the path where he only needed to wait five seconds for Claude to reach the top behind him. "Donny, don't stop let's go-'' the last word cut off as something massive collided with Claude sending him off the dirt, straight over the sidewalk and into the street where he lay looking up at the streetlight. He blinked and put his hand on his head, it was throbbing and bleeding. "Unngh…" he grunted rubbing his head as he sat up and saw the creature dizzyingly, silently circling him in the street. It's body was humanoid and was covered in matted black fur. It's head was like a wolves but bigger and unnaturally angry looking.

It's lips were pulled back as it breathed warm rotten breath down on Claude who was shaking in the middle of the well lit road. He tried to back up on his hands but he was too scared to do anything. The creature picked up Claude with lightning fast speed and immense strength and pulled Claude close and bit deeply into his shoulder. Claude screamed in pain as the creature threw him back into one of the wooden posts, back towards the hiking path they just escaped. Claude felt his back crack against the post as Donny limped towards him dripping with blood, both his and the creatures, on his face. The wound on Claude's shoulder was burning and throbbing. He could feel the blood pouring from the wound while he watched. Head spinning as the creature crawled on its hands and knees in the road towards him, Before being illuminated by a pair of headlights. The creature let out an unnatural noise as it's body wrapped around the front of a red pick up truck which promptly picked up speed as the monster stared at the driver with bloodshot yellow eyes and snarled before the driver slammed hard on the truck's brakes, sending the creature flying and skidding across the concrete in a bloody mess.

"What the fuck was that?" said Francis Callahan lowering his flask and pulling a thirty eight revolver from his glove compartment. "Jesus christ." Francis said as he turned his head right, towards the sound of a dog barking. He could see a man slumped against one of the wooden posts next to the hiking trail. The source of the barking that caught his attention was coming from a rottweiler covered in blood and standing on more than one limping leg. Francis looked ahead and the thing he hit was gone. It's blood still stained the street and then trailed off before disappearing in an alley twenty feet back from where the creature landed. Francis's headlights illuminated the alley which was empty. Taking his eyes off the alley Francis took another sip of the scotch in his flask before screwing the lid back on and throwing it into the back seat. Francis got out, checking that his small revolver was loaded as he did so. Before closing the door he reached over his dashboard for a small flashlight and wrapped the wrist strap around his non gun carrying hand. The streets were deserted save for the dog which didn't stop Barking until Francis approached hesitantly. Francis clicked the light on expecting to see a corpse eaten by coyotes. Francis shined the light on Claude and recognized him immediately. "Jesus, Claude!" Francis shouted, lowering the light and picking up speed towards them. "Fran-cis." Claude said looking up, recognizing him back. Francis ran a fish stand at the farmers market where Claude saw him often, and is now forever going to be known by Claude for his incredible timing. "that's right Claude it's me, old Francis.." the older man spoke not just to calm claude down but to calm himself down. 'That thing I drove into looked like a monster. This isn't a good sign. Folks will panic if they hear about this. Better to just say it was a pack of coyotes.' something Francis Callahan would come to regret doing in the future. "Get. Do-nny!" "Don't worry he's right here, looks to be doing a little better then you right now." he scooped up Claude's body which was losing blood fast. "Oh dear, oh god." Francis repeated as he carried Claude back to his truck and put him into the passenger seat. Francis pulled the seatbelt down around Claude and quickly opened the back door for Donny. "Come on get in." Francis said scanning the trees. The alley. The rooftops of the single story shops and restaurants that lined the sidewalk on this side of town but there was nothing. Clutching his gun he ran around the back of his truck and opened the driver side door, got in and slammed the door shut.

When his eyes were back on the road, he could see a shape back in the alley his truck was facing but beyond a dark humanoid shape squatting in the darkness. It's yellow eyes bore into him from the darkness. Francis put the truck in reverse and backed up fast. Not taking his eyes off the yellow gaze which didn't take it's eyes off him until they were gone."Stay awake damn it!" Francis shouted, making a right turn taking them north. The hospital in Amber, the Bradley memorial hospital. Was on the far east side of town and too for Claude to stay awake without bleeding to death. 'Shit. Claude will bleed to death before we make it to Bradley hospital. This could be a crapshoot but the medicentre might still have a doctor in the building. That's only five minutes away. Francis spun the wheel and made a sharp left turn heading to the medicentre on the south side of town. Francis could see the building in the dark and a man locking the door. Francis slammed hard on the brakes making the man turn towards him. As Francis laid on the truck's horn to make sure he had the man's undivided attention. "Hey!" Francis shouted, stumbling from the drivers side door. "Are you a doctor?!" Francis called over? The man could see Francis looked distressed and had blood on his hands. "Yes my name is doctor Henry Barker, what is this about? What's going on?" The doctor had brown hair and glasses and spoke with a british accent " My name is Francis Callahan, there was an animal attack. This man and his dog were attacked near the dog park!" Francis was screaming in the road as he led the doctor over to his truck. "Attacked by what?" the doctor asked. Francis thought about the question in a blank silence. 'What did attack him?' He thought to himself, almost transfixed by the question.

The doctor repeated the question louder as he opened the door to see Claude, dazed and bloody with Donny in the backseat, starting to look not much better. "Mister Callahan,what did this to them?! Mr. Callahan?!" The doctor decided he would get the answers he needed from Francis later, this kid was bleeding out fast. Doctor Barker put on his glasses,shining a small pen light on Claude's shoulder wound. It looked horribly infected and was steadily losing blood. "Grab him and follow me, while I go unlock the door. Francis picked up Claude who was slipping from consciousness and twitching from the burning pain in his shoulder, and carried him behind the doctor towards the glass double doors. Doctor Barker fished a keyring from his poofy black winter jacket and started to unlock the door. "Get that open faster!" "why? Are you suggesting whatever did this is still out there?" the doctor stopped to look at Francis, he was pale as a ghost.

The doctor only just realized that Claude was being balanced on an arm that was pointing a gun out at the empty, but well lit, snow covered street. "Doc I don't think the thing that did this should be underestimated. Let's just get this kid in there and wrap him up. I Would've taken him to the hospital but he would've bled out in my truck before we got even close to there. The door clicked open and soon Doctor Barker and Francis were rushing inside. "Get him in one of these patient rooms and on a table!" the doctor moved fast because when Francis got inside carrying Claude, the boy's dog was close behind. He only heard the doctors words and made a lucky guess which hallway the doctor too. "Where'd you go, doc?" Francis called out. "Sorry, in here. The doctor said from behind Francis, sticking his head out of a patient room doorway. Francis entered the room and placed Claude on the paper tarp stretched across the hard five foot examining bed. "Let me take care of this. Wait outside and I'll call you if I need a hand." "right, gotcha." Francis said, winded. "and Francis, one more thing. You saved this kid's life tonight." "Don't mention it just save him." Francis said before falling into a plastic chair in the waiting room around the corner.He closed his eyes taking a deep breath. When he opened them he saw Donny sitting in front of him. The dog's face was covered in blood and scratches though the rottweiler's wounds looked a lot less serious than his owners. Francis couldn't get that creature's yellow stare out of his mind. It's bloody teeth with it's lips pulled back in a snarl. Francis's hair stood on end as he looked at the bloodied rottweiler, covered in scratches and blood staining his fur in a large patch on his back running down his twitching rear left leg and asked the dog, "What the fuck happened to you tonight?"

"Mister Callahan!" ten minutes passed and Francis had nearly fallen asleep in one of the waiting room chairs when he heard the doctor calling him and sprang up and down the hall back towards the doctor. The doctor was sweating and covered in blood as he took off his doctor's coat and wiped his forehead of sweat and blood before turning to Francis and handing him a piece of paper. "Mister Callahan if you don't mind would you call this phone number for me? It's a nurse who works with me. Please go call her with the phone in the lobby and tell her it's urgent. When you're done, get back in here till she gets here. Something's not right about these wounds." "right." was all Francis said, turning back to the well lit, clean white lobby, and the folding black metal chairs save for the bloody tracks left by Donny and himself and started walking towards the receptionists desk which had a black desk phone plugged into the wall. Francis picked up the phone and punched in the number that was scribbled on the bloody notepad sheet and after the first ring, the phone picked up. "Hello?" asked an irritated and tired woman's voice. She sounded like she just got home from work. "Hello? I'm calling for Doctor Barker, there's been an emergency and we need you at the clinic right away." Francis finished and there was a brief pause before the woman spoke again. "I'll be right there, help the doctor until I get there in ten minutes." her voice had woken up but sounded devoid of emotion. "Thank you I'll be helping the doctor until you arrive. Also there's this dog too-" she hung up before he could finish. Francis let out a "hmph." as he put the phone down. Francis hung his jacket onto one of the chairs and walked past the dog who was sleeping under the jacket and breathing fast. A trickle of blood ran between his eyes and dried to his nose.

Francis walked back into the room with the doctor wearing black overalls and a long sleeve grey sweater. Claude had several layers of bandages with blood seeping through his shoulder, the doctor had to cut off the orange and black striped shirt he had been wearing because it was soaked with so much blood. His right arm was hanging off the table dripping blood into a small, growing pool beneath his hand. The doctor was sweating profusely while trying to stitch shut a six inch long gash in Claude's abdomen. The pool of blood on the floor had grown over a foot in diameter. "Francis i need you to open that cupboard in the corner and grab all the towels." Francis did as he said and grabbed the seven white folded towels and stuffed them in his arms. "What do you want me to do?" Francis asked sweat running down his bald head and white moustache. "Hold them firmly over this wound when i'm done stitching this shut." Francis stood behind the doctor holding four of the towels together like a baseball umpire. The doctor stretched his needle and snipped the line. "Now!" Doctor Barker said and Francis pressed the towels hard against Claude's stomach.

He passed out from the pain at some point but Francis tried not to pay attention and pressed the towels which were now soaked in blood over the top of the gently stitched wound. Francis's hands were soaked in blood and so were the doctors as he quickly passed Francis the remaining towels and switched them out over the wound. Francis and Henry both could hear light footsteps approaching quickly. "Doctor Barker?" It was the woman Francis called earlier."We're in here!" Doctor Barker called, straightening his crooked glasses and unintentionally smeared blood on the right half of his face. After a moment a pale woman with long black hair in a ponytail entered the room with a look of serious concern on her face. "Sir my name is Pamela Hodder what's going on?" She could See Francis was going to speak but kept choking up. "Easy sir, just tell me what exactly happened to this man?" "he's been attacked presumably by an animal." the doctor said. "An animal. That's right." Francis muttered to himself backing away and looking at the blood on his hands as the woman took over for him. "Mister Callahan are you alright?" Doctor Barker asked looking at Francis who had a dreamlike look in his eyes.

"I'm- I'm sorry doctor. It's been a long time since I've seen this much blood." he said looking past the doctor and at Claude who passed out, his bleeding had stopped. There was an immense and dark pool of blood beneath the nurse. "This man needs a hospital! Now, doctor!" "his wounds are too severe to move him, he could die if we do!" "He'll die here!" The doctor ignored her protests to call an ambulance and insisted on treating Claude at the clinic as is. Francis stumbled out of the room while they argued and walked into the bathroom which was silent as he shut and locked the door. Turning to look in the mirror he saw himself covered in blood from his waist to his neck, hands all the way to his elbows and a few splashes on his face. His hands shook as he closed his eyes and started to count to ten. Memories over a decade old swam unwelcome in his head while he washed the blood from his hands which turned a bright pink as he rubbed the wall mounted hand sanitizer in with the soap. 'Just breathe slow. Stay calm, he's gonna be just fine. "He's gonna die." Francis accidentally said out loud to his reflection. Or maybe it was just the reflection that said it, he couldn't tell anymore.

Back in the room with Doctor Barker and his nurse, the nurse had hooked Claude up to an IV administering medicine which would stop the bleeding while doctor Barker changed the bandages on the massive shoulder bite a second time and while the bleeding here was slower, the infection was unlike anything the doctor had ever seen before. "Nurse Hodder, you need to see this." doctor Barker said as the nurse looked at the bite. "My god." she said staring at the pulsing black bite mark that looked beyond infected. It looked necrotic. The tooth lacerations started beside the collar bone, surprisingly not breaking it, and ran just past the neck. It looked like nothing, either one of them had seen in their medical careers. "Don't think about it, just get some fresh towels now!" the doctor yelled and the nurse Hodder ran out of the room in her flat white shoes now soaked in blood as well as the rest of her white nurses uniform. She opened a closet door and grabbed five large bath towels and ran back to the doctor trying not to slip on her slippery, bloody shoes. "I've got the towels here doctor." "Good," said the Doctor before Claude screamed in a burning pain as the doctor poured rubbing alcohol on his shoulder. "I can hardly believe an animal out here, could have done this to him." the nurse said as she pressed the towel hard over the wound.

He appeared to have passed out again. "That was no animal…" Claude muttered before losing consciousness once more. The nurse looked at the doctor who paid the comment no mind. "Doctor if this wasn't an animal then we have to assume a person did this, we should call the sheriff." "he's lost about half a gallon of blood he's speaking nonsense." "and what if he is coherently recollecting what happened?" "This is not the time for this nurse." the doctor said sternly, locking eyes with her as he finished. "This can wait until tomorrow morning when he is conscious and coherent, understand?" "yes doctor, understood." she said the last word pulling her gaze from his towards the man on the table and focused. It took several hours and Francis had fought off the idea of falling asleep in one of the folding chairs, he pointed it towards the door and gripped his revolver, watching for that monster he hit earlier, Its yellow eyes devoid of anything but rage as the thin black pupil stared at Francis, staring at him through an inch and a half of glass, Francis shuddered at the thought of encountering something like that again without the protection of his truck. He pondered going outside for a cigarette and decided against it.

Francis struggled to keep his eyes open. It had grown late. Outside the glass door ahead of him it was pitch black except for the streetlights illuminating the dark streets as a blanket of snow had started to fall without him realizing it. He hadn't heard much noise from the doctors office in a few hours. But the lights were still bright and without even a hint of flickering. "Doctor Barker?" Francis asked, rising from his chair and putting his gun in his pocket. "Nurse Hodder?" Francis reached into his pocket for the gun. When he reached the room where Claude was being operated on he gently pushed the door open. "Doctor? Are you in- oh my god!" Francis grabbed the knob and yanked it shut. The pristine white room he brought Claude in earlier was stained with red on every wall. The table Claude had been laying on was drenched in gore and the doctor and his nurse had been gutted. The doctor's head split down the middle to the base of his neck and Francis didn't spare time to see the nurse before slamming the door. 'Jesus, I fell asleep. That thing must have followed us back and killed the others while I was out.' "jesus." was all he could get out. The man in his mid fifties gasped clutching his chest with his left hand and his gun even harder in his right, as he struggled to catch his breath. He was also just noticing that Donny was missing as well. "Donny?" Francis called into the dead clinic.

Looking around frantically, Francis noticed a wide trail of blood from where Donny was laying next to him on the floor and trailing as if a body had been dragged across it, down a long corridor that led presumably to the bathrooms. The lights in the long corridor were out and the other lights seemed to be absorbed into the pitch black corridor ahead of Francis who stared at the blood trail that retreated further into darkness. Francis could hear a faint grumbling down the hall and was praying it was Donny as his heart raced. "Donny is that you?" Francis asked, his voice shaking uncontrollably and his chest pounding. The grumbling got louder and Francis squinted and took a step forward to try and see further but couldn't so he took another and the grumbling turned into an angry deep growl like a wolf, and it was behind him. Francis held his eyes shut tight as he felt the warm, necrotic smelling breath of whatever was towering behind him. Without thinking Francis charged into the darkness. The growling became a series of roaring barking sounds that sounded like a combination of the raging screams of a madman and barking wild dogs. Francis was blind in the darkness ahead of him and slipped on the blood trail which thickened into a puddle where he stepped and he fell forwards landing on his stomach. He rolled onto his back and picked himself up, unable to see which way he came from as the corridor gradually spiraled and he didn't notice the turn. It was longer than it should have been and the distance he ran felt like he ran a marathon. Francis raised his head which was spinning in the darkness and saw ahead of him a pair of bobbing yellow eyes floating in the darkness. Yellow orbs devoid of feeling, not bobbing but moving, running. "Francis tried to scream but no noise came out.

"Mister Callahan are you alright?!" It was nurse Hodder. "Francis relax, you were having a nightmare." the nurse said, looking tired. "A nightmare?" he asked, sounding relieved and looked out the building to see the orange sun shining on a grey two story building across the street as a truck with a snow plow drove by and some teenagers were walking to school. "Claude, Is he all right?" Francis asked as soon as he remembered why he was even here. "He's in critical condition. We transferred him to Bradley memorial hospital. Doctor Barker had to drive the man��s dog to the veterinary clinic, next door to Bradley memorial on the other side of town. You seemed distraught and exhausted so the Doctor told me to let you sleep." Francis let out a sigh. "Right, Thank you. Is the doctor still here?" "He's at the hospital with the young man. He wanted me to make sure you were alright to leave before locking this place up. He mentioned something about the patient from last night. Claude, you said his name was?" "Yes, that's right." Francis said looking outside into the morning.

"Let the doctors worry about this. Please mister Callahan, head home. I noticed your ring, you should get home before your wife kills you. Maybe get her a pumpkin and you two can make a Jack-O-Lantern." 'Not a bad idea. She's surprisingly good at reading people' Francis thought before remembering that he was supposed to be meeting his wife for dinner last night when he found Claude close to dead in the street. "oh fuck." said Francis letting out a loud gasp, "sorry, my wife is going to kill me." Francis quickly made his way outside into the fresh morning air, walked over to his truck and opened the driver side door of his old red pickup. When the door was barely a foot open, Francis gagged as the warm stench wafted out and the sight of all the blood assaulted his senses. He let out a cough and covered his face with his arm as he stepped inside and rolled the driver and passenger side windows all the way down and drove past the hospital on his way home where his wife was waiting. Her anger quickly turned to concern when he explained what happened as best he could and showed her the bloodstains inside the truck, his wife was five years younger but looked just as old as her fifty year old husband. "Are you alright?" Nancy asked, brown grey hair falling over her green eyes which she quickly brushed away before she pulled a red sweater over her shoulders as the wind picked up, chilling her as she saw the stains. "I'm fine honey, Claude Williams is in the hospital. His dog too." Nancy put both hands over her mouth as she said the words "oh my god." "I'm sorry to make you worry." "Just don't don't do it again." she said, hugging her husband, who hugged her back.